Many large businesses rely on enterprise resource planning computing architectures and legacy systems to electronically manage and coordinate business resources, information, and functions. In large organizations these computing architectures may be made up of hundreds of systems, distributed across various entities making up the organization. For example, a global business may rely on location-specific logistics systems to process orders in different localities, division specific supply chain management systems to manage supply chains across geographies, and business specific accounting systems to manage financial transactions at a business level.
These systems may interact not only with other systems in the organization, but also with external systems managed by other organizations. In many instances these legacy systems may be preconfigured to communicate with other systems using similar commands, variables, and methods. However, over time different systems in the organization may be replaced or upgraded, or new systems may be introduced into the organization that do not communicate using the same commands, variables, or methods. For example, new systems may be needed to manage new business workflows that are not supported by existing legacy systems. Integrating these new systems that do not communicate using the same commands, variables, or methods into existing systems was time consuming and cumbersome. In many instances, software programs and source code would have to be reconfigured to enable communication between these systems. Reconfiguring these systems is not only costly and inefficient, but is also time consuming and prevents quick integration of critical replacement systems into enterprise resource planning systems.
Thus, there is a need to quickly and inexpensively integrate systems using different communication commands, variables, and methods into existing systems.